The public were first awakened to the imperfections of the Scottish poor law by Dr. W. P. Alison, a physician in Edinburgh, and professor of the practice of medicine in the university. Having frequently administered professional ser vices to the poorer classes, he showed from his own experience that the utter inadequacy of the provision afforded to those who, by inability to work, or bad seasons, or revulsion in trade, were re duced to want, was an extensive cause of disease, vice, and misery. The city population speedily answered to this ap peal, and associations were formed, and Inquiries made in various directions. It was shown that the amount expended on the relief of the poor in Scotland amounted to little more than a sixth part of the sum distributed throughout an equal population in England by the economised poor law. In England, the expense of supporting the poor amounted to 6s. 10fef. per head of the population ; in Scotland, to ls. 214. In some of the Highland parishes, whence the most destitute objects emigrated over the rest of the country, the allowances were ludicrously small ; and a Report made to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1839, enumerated instances where sums averaging from 3s. to ls. yearly were solemnly awarded to des titute people, as the provision which the poor law made for their wants. In the mean time, the discussion of these mat ters had a tendency gradually to increase the amount of the provision for the poor. The practice of assessments made con siderable progress, and a return to par liament ii, 1843 shows that between 1836 and 1841 the sums raised by assessment had increased from £89,101 to £128,858; while the sums raised by voluntary assessment had risen from £15,829 to £22,385. A commission was at last appointed to inquire into the whole state of the subject, and after hearing much evidence, they presented a Report, accompanied by a voluminous appendix, in 1843. The amendments proposed in this Report were supposed to be of a somewhat narrow nature ; the country expressed dissatisfaction with them ; and in 1845 a measure was passed embodying alterations considerably more extensive.
By this act, 8 & 9 Viet. c. 83, a board of supervision is appointed, con sisting of persons connected with the municipal bodies and the administration of justice in Scotland, with one salaried member, who gives constant personal attendance. The office of the board is in Edinburgh. This board is endowed with ample means for ascertaining, in all parts of the country, the condition of the poor, and the method in which the system of relief is administered. The board has, however, no directory or prohibitory control over the proceedings of the local boards. These bodies are, however, reorganised by the act. In the rural parishes where there is an assessment, the local board is to consist of landowners to the extent of £20 annaal value, the kirk session, and cer tain elected representatives of the other rate-payers, according to the number fixed by the board of supervision. In city
parishes, the boards are each to consist of four persons named by the magistrates, deputies not exceeding four from each kirk session in the city, and certain elected persons according to a number and qualification fixed by the board of supervision. In parishes where there is no assessment, the management is to con tinue under the old system. There is thus in this act no machinery for levying or exacting a rate for the poor, unless in those parishes where the persons more immediately concerned agree to such a measure. It is held, however, that the facilities which the statute gives the poor for exacting from the respective parochial authorities the relief to which they are entitled, will render it necessary to put more extensive funds at the disposal of the distributors of relief, and this can only be accomplished through the system of assessment. When persons apply for relief, it is provided that though they have no settlement, if the claim would be just in the case of their having one in the parish where it is made, subsistence must be afforded them till it is de termined what parish is liable. When relief is refused, the applicant may apply to the sheriff, who may grant an order for temporary relief, and then hear par ties, and decide whether the applicant is or is not entitled to relief. In this form, however, neither the sheriff nor any other judre can decide on the adequacy of relief. '1 he initial step to any judicial appeal against the, amount of the relief afforded, is by au application to the board of supervision, and on that body report ing its concurrence, the applicant is placed on the poor-roll of the court of session, where he has the privilege of the question being discussed gratis. By this act, provision is made for medical attendance and medicines, being part of the system of pauper relief, and for the education of pauper children. It is pro-. vided, that for the purposes of the act, parishes may be united into " combina tions." By a special clause, nothing in the act is to be construed as entitling the able-bodied to relief, and their claim is thus left in the state of doubt in which it stood before the passing of the act. Men deserting their wives and children are made liable to punishment as va grants, a provision which it is hoped may afford a remedy to a defect which has long characterised the law of Scotland— the absence of any means by which deserted wives can make effectual claims on their husbands for sustenance to them selves and their children, without a regular action in the court of session. By the new act, a new and more specific mode of apportioning the assessment be tween lauded and other property has been attempted to be established, but this provision is already a fruitful source of dispute and litigation. The time neces sary to acquire an industrial settlement is increased from three to five years.